Photo via YouTube/Malaria No More
Photo via YouTube/Malaria No More

Here’s a great one about how technology can help cure disease. The fight against malaria got a boost from Google.org today as the philanthropic arm announced a $600,000 grant for Malaria No More.

The nonprofit will use the grant for a data-mining project in Nigeria. “The grant is part of a pot of $15 million that Google.org is doling out to organizations that use technology to solve the world’s biggest problems,” according to Wired.

Malaria kills more than 450,000 children every year, 90 percent of them in Africa. It is also one of the easiest diseases to prevent with mosquito nets and drugs, according to Malaria No More.

How will it work? Well, many Africans do have a mobile phone, and that’s just one more opportunity to communicate with them and collect data. “Lack of information and data is why this is among one of the deadliest diseases on the planet,” Malaria No More’s CEO Martin Edlund says.

The nonprofit will partner with a Nigerian startup called Sproxil, which helps fight the counterfeit drug market by putting codes on authentic medicines. Anyone who buys them can now text the codes for free to verify the drugs. Wired reports that “Sproxil has verified some 13.4 million drugs and counting.”

Additionally, texting codes gives Malaria No More data on what drugs people are taking in remote locales, where illnesses are occurring and how patients are treated, helping them track the spread and treatments for the disease.

Watch the campaign video below:

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